Mr. Wynnrose to move for leave to bring in a bill for the regulation of Mad-houses, and observed, that as this subject had been already several times before the House, he did not feel it necessary long to trespass upon its attention. It would be recollected, that some years ago, the report of a committee had been laid before the House, detailing such scenes of misery and wretchedness in mad-houses, as had perhaps never been paralleled; and after such an expose, it was the obvious duty of the House to follow up the report by the adoption of some legislative measure, calculated to put an end to the evils complained of. There was, however, no fault to be found with the conduct of that House; for it had done its duty, by repeatedly sending up a bill to the other House of parliament, which that House thought proper to reject. He believed it was not irregular to advert to the proceedings of the other House in a former parliament; and he could not forbear from remarking, that no reason was at any time publicly stated in that House for rejecting the bills alluded to. He was indeed at a loss to divine the grounds upon which such rejections took place; and as none were urged, it was the duty of the House to persist in its purpose of legislating, with a view to correct the enormous evils, which, upon full inquiry before a committee, were demonstrated to exist. Many of the evils described in the report of that committee had been removed or abated; but, too many of those evils still existed. The regulations desired were not generally adopted; and a proper system of regimen and control was not yet established. No effectual provisions, indeed, with a view to that establishment, had yet been enacted; for it appeared, that although no mad-houses could be legally opened, without a license from the college of physicians, that body was not in possession of funds to prosecute such as might violate the law. Under these circumstances, he proposed by the bill which he meant to bring in, that a general board of inspection for mad-houses should be appointed, and that the members of that board should be at liberty to visit such houses throughout the country at different and uncertain times, so as to ascertain the manner in which they were conducted, and to report any existing evil to the board, which should be invested with powers to enforce their correction. There was a provision in the existing law, that no lunatic should 973 be taken into any mad-house, without a statement of the name of such lunatic, with that of the person by whom he was sent in, and the degree of relationship of such person to the lunatic, together with a medical certificate as to the nature of his disease. Now, he understood that this provision was not unfrequently evaded by a misstatement of the name of the lunatic; and it was one of the objects of his proposed bill to impose a penalty upon all such wilful misstatements. He had been told, that one of the objections to the former bills upon this subject in the other House was, the proposition to have a board of inspection appointed in each county, at the general quarter sessions. Upon what valid ground this objection was entertained, he could not well conceive; but he was not unwilling to have the power of making such appointments vested elsewhere. Another provision in the former bills, which he heard was particularly objected to in the other House, was this, that any house, having only a a single lunatic, should be bound to make a return of the name and situation of such lunatic to the office of the secretary of state for the home department, to be there registered; and that such register should be open to inspection only by the secretary of state's permission, upon special application made to him for that purpose. He was ready to admit, that the feeling of delicacy and tenderness for private families, upon which this objection rested, was entitled to due consideration. But Set it be recollected, that a person might be so confined, without any medical certificate, and that great abuses might arise out of the toleration of such a system. To guard, then, against such abuses, he thought it indispensably necessary that some plan should be adopted for registering the names of all persons so confined. For in case it should be required, by any relation of any such person, to ascertain his actual condition, how could he proceed to do so? If not enabled to know the place of his confinement, to whom was the Court of Chancery to address a Habeas Corpus to bring up any lunatic, or alleged lunatic, for examination? He proposed, then, that a register should be established under the control of the secretary of state, through whose permission alone such register should be inspected. This arrangement was the more necessary, as he understood that many instances had occurred in which persons 974 so confined had been kept under restraint long after their disease had been removed. But the unnecessary continuation of such restraint was not uncommon in the several private mad-houses. Such instances of abuse had indeed been found to occur even in the mad-house under the direction of Mr. Bakewell, of Staffordshire, which was confessedly one of the best regulated houses in England. The hon. gentleman concluded with moving for leave to bring in a bill for repealing the acts of the 14th and 55th of the king with respect to madhouses; and for making other provisions for the better regulation of such houses.—
§ Leave was accordingly given.